Single mom's death leaves 7 kids at a loss

STOCKTON - Jeanette Kudron was driving home Sunday morning from her overnight shift as a stocker at Walmart Neighborhood Grocery when the unthinkable happened.

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Jeanette Kudron was driving home Sunday morning from her overnight shift as a stocker at Walmart Neighborhood Grocery when the unthinkable happened.

The 35-year-old single mother of seven children died after the car she was driving inexplicably crashed at 7:36 a.m. into a tree in the center divider along the 700 block of East March Lane. When first responders arrived, they found Kudron trapped in the vehicle and unresponsive.

After she was freed, she was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead, Stockton police reported.

Authorities did not provide further details Monday while the incident is being investigated.

Kudron's children were at a loss to explain what happened, speculating that she may have fallen asleep after working all night just a few blocks away from the scene of the accident. No other people or vehicles were involved in the crash, according to police.

"She was really tired working the night shift. She was the support for everybody," said eldest daughter Keasha Kudron, 18.

Jeanette Kudron's children - Keasha, Devin and Geovonni Kudron; Jasmine Rubio; Anthony Fajardo; and Kameryn and Alyssa Villa - range in age from 6 to 18. She also leaves behind two grandchildren.

"We don't know what we will do," Keasha Kudron said. She described her mother as "a very loving and caring person, and everybody loved being around her, even if they had just met her. She had her bad days, but her good days are what mattered. She loved her kids and her grandkids."

As friends stopped by the Kudrons' north Stockton home Monday afternoon to pay their respects, daughter Jasmine Rubio said, "She was the only one who held us all together."

Kudron's boss at Walmart, store manager Fabian Armenta, said Kudron would be sorely missed, and her teammates were saddened by the news.

"She was a great associate, very upbeat, always had a good attitude and she was hard-working. It's very sad to lose a member of our Walmart family like that," Armenta said, noting that Kudron had worked at the store at March and West lanes since shortly after it opened in September.

Armenta said he was keeping in close contact with the family and, depending upon their wishes, was prepared to put together a package for them.